Thanks for the kind words! I really enjoy the Web 2.0 stuff, although I would hesitate to call myself a guru!

I’ll do my best to provide the “real story on the ground” – it can get delicate, because none of the vendors really has their act together yet, and one customer’s meat is another customer’s poison.

But I’m starting to feel more comfortable calling it like it is, and will do more of that in 2009!

Best regards — Dan

Yes, D&B does a pretty good job providing legal names and DBA’s / tradestyles.

D&B does have agreements in place with all 50 U.S. states to get new business incorporations (although they require at least one more source to create a new DUNS Number for a new business).

They have about 5,000 different data sources, and I think they look for name changes in all of them, particularly when a record is already tagged with a DUNS Number but now shows up with a new name.

But I don’t think they do as good of a job on name changes, just because companies don’t always notify anyone, they just start doing business under their new name.

Best regards — Dan

Well, I gotta say, I think you could make a career as a Web2.0 guru if MDM dries up! You’ve covered every base possible and I’ve just registed for your MDM communit and already there are some useful discussions kicking off.

I think for me keep up the great work you’re doing and keep giving us the real story on the ground, warts and all.

This is an evolving marketplace with a lot of companies keen to test the water but very nervous about getting it wrong. So let’s hear from your clients and peers on some real tales from the coal face, no-one believes for an instant this stuff is a walk in the park so some honesty and reality against the tech. vendor case studies would be welcome.

Putting my DQ head on I obviously want to learn more about how our members and readers can benefit from MDM as I’m sure many are keen to extend their skills in this area.

Keep up the good work!

I agree with you, D&B has done a great job providing correct legal name in addition to various DBA’s, tradestyles

Does D&B subscribe to a (US) state’s ” Department of Incorporations ”
when creating a BIR for the first time ? How do they subscribe or find
‘ name changes ” ?

Regards

I found a pretty good document from Harvard University’s internal Oracle implementation at: http://able.harvard.edu/ar/qr/a1202q/

Google the phrase “customer naming conventions” and you should find at least some good results. Here’s a few that I found very quickly:

https://www.upk.ucalgary.ca/finmac/Customer%20Naming%20Conventions.pdf
http://forums.rmaa.com.au/showthread.php?t=115

Also, I’m a big fan of D&B, and their over-riding “naming convention” for company names is to use Legal Name, as provided by at least TWO independent sources (i.e. Secretary of State and at least 1 other source). So if you have access to D&B, that would be a big help.

I’ve also posted your question on the MDM Community (http://mdmcommunity.ning.com), and I’ll let you know if we get any interesting answers there.

My org has oracle 11i. They are making a step to fomalize/validate customer master/customer record creation

Previously they used Tradestyles/DBA’s which has not worked for groups relying an valid legal entities

They are looking for a customer naming convention document to use in 11i as a start.

Do you have access to sample naming convention for 11i ?

Thanks !

Greg